Most of them were aimed to calm the fears of a fan base suddenly used to success, and likely nervous about a new addition, in first-time manager Brad Ausmus, who was being introduced.

Five unrelated words, though, may have calmed Detroit Tigers fans more than anything else.

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“We’re going to have a closer.”

After a year-plus of slapdash solutions to the problems of closing out games, Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski confirmed in no uncertain terms that the franchise will be looking to solve the issue in the offseason.

And this is a perfect time to do it.

“You want to bring a closer back. We’re going to have a closer, so we’ll want to pursue somebody to pitch at the back end of the bullpen,” Dombrowski said of the upcoming free-agency period.

“Joaquin (Benoit) is in that group, but there are a lot of closers out there. It’s the one area where there are a lot of guys. That’s the one area I think we need to address, with him or someone else. And then we’ll look at the rest of the club.”

Benoit finished out the season as the team’s closer, recording 24 saves in the regular season, and three more in the postseason. He was a perfect (albeit tardy) solution to a persistent problem — one that had dated back to the end of the 2012 season — but he alone could not solve the Tigers’ relief issues.

And now, after three seasons as one of the team’s most consistent relievers, he’s a free agent — one whom the Tigers would like to have back, but one for whom they could not justify making the $14.1 million qualifying offer.

Luckily for them, it’s a market awash in guys with closing experience.

Free agency officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning, but the Tigers — now that they’ve got the managerial opening filled — are planning on spending most of this week in organizational meetings, lining up their priorities.

Free-agent targets are assuredly at the top of the agenda.

“We’ll talk about all of our club. And we’ll talk about all of the other organizations at this time period, and set our priorities up,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t know if all the decisions we’ll make are final, because we have some pieces we need to fit together.”

Assuredly, relief pitchers — both back-end and middle relief — will be at the top of the list.

The names on that list are impressive and extensive. Much more so than the one that dominated the roster of available targets at this time last year — Rafael Soriano, who signed with the Nationals for two years, $22 million.

The Tigers will need more than just one guy to fix the problems of the pen, especially since they declined to pick up the $4 million team option on set-up man Jose Veras’ contract, and Drew Smyly — the team’s other reliable back-end option from 2013 — could be headed back to the rotation, if the Tigers move one of their surplus of starters.

Veras could conceivably be back, too, at a lower rate, but that’s less likely.

“Well, I wouldn’t say we’ve closed door,” Dombrowski said Sunday, reiterating that the option’s dollar figure had grown from $3.25 to $4 million because of escalator clauses in the deal. “We just felt at that time, with that amount of money, we wanted to keep it available to explore our whole bullpen.

“Would I rule it out? No. But I’m also not in the position that I can see to pay him those dollars. So we’ll see what happens.”

It might be the same situation for Phil Coke, who made $1.85 million in a lackluster 2013. A projection by MLBTradeRumors.com has that figure climbing, through arbitration, to $2.1 million for this season. That, along with a .299 batting average allowed to lefties, and a 5.40 ERA in 2013, is what likely makes Coke a non-tender candidate, meaning the Tigers will have yet one more spot to fill in the bullpen.

Guys like Eric O’Flaherty, J.P. Howell, Javier Lopez, Manny Parra, Scott Downs, Boone Logan or Oliver Perez could be targets to fill one of the lefty spots in the bullpen, as could in-house candidate Jose Alvarez, who wound up there at the end of his rookie season with the Tigers in 2013. Darin Downs was lost to a waiver claim earlier this week.

Other than the maddeningly-inconsistent Al Alburquerque, the remainder of the in-house candidates don’t make anyone quake in their boots, though. Having to rely on youngsters like Luke Putkonen, Evan Reed, Alvarez, Jose Ortega or Luis Marte to get critical outs in the stretch drive and the playoffs was part of the reason the bullpen has been such a sore spot for the team the last two campaigns.

Of course, there’s still the one big in-house candidate to grab some sort of a role in the 2014 bullpen, provided the elbow soreness which kept him out of the playoffs was — as the Tigers said at the time — not a red flag.

Bruce Rondon went into last season as the odds-on favorite to win the closer’s job, then could not handle the weight of those expectations in spring training. He came up once and struggled more, but seemed to flourish in his final stint with the big-league club, before he was shut down in September with elbow tendinitis.

Rondon still has the potential to grow into the closer’s job, but the Tigers don’t want to go into another season with that as their only option.

Nor do fans.

If he ends up pitching the eighth — or even just the sixth and seventh again — that would probably sit well with everyone involved, particularly if the guys secured to hold down the late innings are keeping him there with solid performance of their own.

It could be Benoit. Or it could be any of the other top free agents, any of whom are likely to command a contract with an average annual value (AAV) of anywhere from $8 million to $11 million.

Could it be Benoit AND one of those other top free agents?

Sure. That’s possible — but not likely.

There’s a better likelihood that it could be Benoit (or another top target), then a reclamation project like Ryan Madson, Hanrahan, Juan Carlos Oviedo or Jesse Crain — all of whom are coming back from injury — signed to a lesser-dollar deal. A guy like Perez, who lost his job in-season, would fit there, too.

Don’t be surprised if the Tigers take a couple of those fliers this year, and try to throw quantity at the problem.

Regardless, one calming reminder remains.

The Tigers are going to have a closer.

That alone should make fans feel better about the offseason already.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.